10,000 baby octopuses, 80,000 arms, 1 night to remember

An octopus' life is short — two years is a pretty common lifespan — and heavily focused on reproduction. They only get one shot at carrying on the genetic lineage and die soon after breeding. Babies are born not by the two, or tens, or even hundreds. Instead, tens of thousands of octopus siblings enter the world all at once — tiny, translucent hatchlings that ride the waves and try not to die more quickly than they already must.

From our forums

When I was a kid I drove my parents nuts because I checked out a copy of Octopus Lives in the Ocean by William Stephens at least a dozen times. It opens very sadly with the death of a mother octopus and the birth of the brood. Being able to actually see the event is pretty amazing.